AMERICAN IRON. 
287 
It is supposed that the horse contracted the disease from 
the bite of a dog, supposed to have been rabid, and seen in 
the neighbourhood of Ready, about three weeks since. It 
was a fortunate circumstance that Mr. Small was so soon at 
hand, and that he at once pronounced the case one of hydro- 
phobia : otherwise, frightful consequences might have ensued 
to all the men about the place, who, in their ignorance of 
the terrible malady of the animal, would, doubtless, have been 
more venturesome in endeavouring to secure him . — Armagh 
Sporting Chronicle ; March 12, 1853. 
SPONTANEOUS OR IDIOPATHIC EMPHYSEMA. 
By W. Burke Ryan, M.B. 
[We extract the following remarks on this subject from a 
paper in the Medical Times , as applicable to broken-wind and 
scarlatina :] 
Traumatic cases of emphysema we are sufficiently 
acquainted with, including that which must be called trau- 
matic, and which sometimes is seen to occur during the 
struggles of severe labour ; but spontaneous emphysema 
must be regarded as a very rare complication of scarlatina, — 
indeed, rare in any case of disease in this country, even in 
cases of a typhoid or malignant nature. It is seen in the 
fevers of warm climates, and would appear to be considered 
a secretion of air or gas from the blood, although it seems 
scarcely legitimate to infer its being a secretion from a com- 
parison of what occurs in many species of fish, where air is 
generated in the sound or swimming bladders, — the one 
being a diseased and abnormal product, the other a healthy 
secretion. In typhoid and adynamic fevers, if we find it, we 
are somewhat prepared by a lengthened and extreme de- 
pression of the vital powers, and we look upon it as con- 
sequent upon depraved or vitiated blood in the nature of a 
decomposition. 
AMERICAN IRON. 
Now is the time, if ever (says the Evening Mirror ) for 
American iron-factors to put their furnaces, forges, and 
rolling-machines in order, and demonstrate that they can, 
even without the factitious protection of Government, com- 
pete with the world in iron products. 
